Climate Challenge: Two Questions for Romney

***UPDATE!***

We delivered your signatures -- over 52K of them! -- at a high-profile event in Boston at the Romney Headquarters. Read about it here, and let's keep building the pressure.

When it comes to the climate crisis, Mitt Romney has been evasive and inconsistent. The stakes are too high to play politics with the planet, so we're issuing Mr. Romney a direct challenge by asking him two simple questions

Mitt Romney now has an energy plan. In its 21 pages are promises to the fossil fuel industry for nearly everything on its wish list--more fracking, more oil drilling, and more freedom to pollute.

What the plan doesn’t have is a single mention of climate change. Romney doesn’t talk much about how humans are warming the planet while campaigning either, and when he does, his words are down right scary. He calls cap and trade, a Republican idea, a “radical feel-good” policy that would have “devastating results for people across the planet.” He has said that on Day 1 of his administration that he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring 900,000 barrels of the world’s dirtiest oil, tar sands crude from Canada, down through the US for export.

So taking a close look at Romney’s other climate and energy policies seems like a smart thing to do. Of course it’s also a good idea to consider these policies given what we now know for certain: climate change is happening, it's very serious, and we need to act now.

Romney on fossil fuel subsidies Romney is against ending taxpayer giveaways to oil, coal, and gas companies, op-ed in Foster’s Daily Democrat (NH), Romney wrote: “Irresponsibly, the EPA declared carbon dioxide, the same carbon dioxide that humans exhale, to be a ‘pollutant’ that poses risks to human health. As a result, the EPA is now issuing regulations under the Clean Air Act that will produce the same sort of economic devastation that Congress had wisely rejected.” The fact is that the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to regulate carbon emissions, and thank goodness for that. Our Congress won't do it, and as a result of EPA action, we are using less coal and emissions are declining.

Romney on clean energyThe wind production tax credit (PTC) allows the wind sector, which now employs more people than the coal sector does, to compete with electricity derived from fossil fuels. Romney wants to end the tax break for wind producers. Shawn McCoy, a spokesman for Romney’s Iowa campaign, op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch, Romney wrote: “In place of real energy, Obama has focused on an imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and solar panels could power the economy. This vision has failed. … The costs of this anti-growth agenda are plain. Our economy just had its worst non-recession year since World War II, and families are feeling the pain directly as gasoline prices surge to record highs.”

Romney on the science of climate changeOnce a strong supporter from action on climate change, Romney has changed his tune. He recently said in Pittsburgh"My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us. It's up to Mitt Romney to explain why he seems to disagree with NASA, the EPA, the Supreme Court and NOAA--all of whom have said that humans are warming the planet.

Romney's advisors are climate deniers or opponents of climate actionMany of Romney's team have stood in the way of climate action or gone as far as pushing junk climate science.

Andrea Saul: formerly worked for DCI Group, a Washington DC public affairs and lobbying firm. DCI is infamous for working with Exxon and other polluters to muddy the global warming debate with junk science.

Romney is taking huge sums of oil and coal money Romney's campaign has directly received more than $1 million from the oil and gas industry. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, as of March 21 the Romney campaign had received $754,400 from the oil and gas industry during the 2012 election cycle. Romney received $520,094 from the oil and gas industry during his 2008 campaign for President. And the Koch brothers are expected to spend up to $200 million to help get Romney elected.

Dear Mr. Romney:

Do you disagree with the scientific consensus that humans are warming the planet?

If not, what do you plan to do to solve the climate crisis if you are elected President?

Given that the EPA, the Supreme Court, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and every scientific academy in every country in the world all have said that humans are warming the planet and that strong action is needed, the American people need to know your stance on climate change and what you plan to do about it.

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